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Battles - The Capture of Basra, 1914

The capture of Basra
(present-day Al-Basrah) formed the opening action on the Mesopotamian Front
and ran from 5-21 November 1914 with the belated entry of Turkey into the
war against the
Entente Powers.

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By November 1914 the Indian
government already had some 5,000 Indian Expeditionary Force D troops in the
Persian Gulf under the command of General Sir Arthur Barrett, having set off
from Bombay on 16 October.

Sited at the mouth of the
Shatt-el-Arab and provided with support by the Royal Navy's Gulf Division
Barrett's force were originally despatched to protect against territorial
incursions from the then-neutral Ottoman Empire.

In particular the
government in Britain was especially keen to guard Abadan and its associated
pipeline to Persian oilfields. The London War Office was in favour of
a cautious strategy of simply defending British oil supplies in Mesopotamia,
rather than in an aggressive forward strategy.

Nevertheless the government
in India, while recognising the key importance of securing continued access
to the oilfields, remained in favour of what it termed 'forward defence' -
in essence the ambitious policy discounted by London.

Thus Barrett's instructions
included a provision - unknown to London - enabling an attack upon the
Turk-controlled port of Basra in the event of formal hostilities breaking
out between Britain and Turkey.

Basra
- a city on the River Euphrates, inland from where the river flowed into the
head of the Persian Gulf - contained a population of approximately 60,000
people, comprised of a mixture of Muslims and Christians.

With hostilities between
the Ottoman Empire and the Entente Powers formally under way from 5 November
1914 the Anglo-Indian force lost no time in acting against Basra. The
following day Brigadier-General Delamain (forming the advance force)
despatched 600 troops to secure the poorly defended coastal batteries at Fao
before moving upriver, supported by naval sloops and an armed merchant
cruiser.

Reaching Abadan on 7
November Delamain's force quickly dispersed light resistance before
establishing a fortified camp some 5km further up the
river. Delamain repelled a dawn attack launched by 400
Turkish troops on 11 November at heavy loss to the Turks. Within the
space of three
days a further 7,000 Indian troops had been added to Expeditionary Force D,
along with light artillery.

Barrett resolved to lose no
time in taking Basra, in spite of the knowledge that a significant Turkish
force of 4,500 men, operating under Subhi Bey (commander of lower
Mesopotamian forces), was assembling there.

In the face of distinctly
unfavourable attacking conditions - heavy rainfall and its consequent mud bath,
in addition to heat mirages - the British force found progress initially
difficult to come by until the use of 18-pounder artillery succeeded in
scattering defenders, most of whom escaped under protection of a heat
mirage, unable to be pursued by cavalry in such thick mud.

Defeated in action the
Turks hurriedly attempted to initiate a prepared plan to close the Shatt-el-Arab
by tying a string of ships across it and sinking them. However a cable
snapped leaving a gap sufficient to enable one British vessel at a time to pass
through.

The following morning
Barrett received news from a local Arab Sheikh that the Turks had withdrawn
leaving Basra empty. Thus two battalions embarked and sailed to Basra
entering the city on the evening of 21 November; Barrett officially took
possession two days later.

In taking Basra the
British-led force suffered under 500 casualties and the Turks in excess of
1,000. Crucially the British had secured and ensured a continuation of
oil supplies in the Middle East: a matter of paramount importance.

Misled by the apparent
fragility of Turkish defences into assuming this to be the case generally,
the Indian administration felt sufficiently encouraged to determine to extend
Anglo-Indian operations further beyond expectations previously established in
London.

Click here to view a map
charting operations in Mesopotamia through to 1917.